Motorsport: Bloodline runs true

Josh Hill. Photo / Supplied.

Damon Hill expected his son to be a footballer or golfer.

The 1996 Formula 1 champion says son Josh, who will compete in the Toyota Racing Series, showed little interest in cars as a youngster.

"I didn't have any inkling until he was 15," Damon says. "I figured he would have found interest in football or golf or something else. One day he told me he wanted to have a go at racing. I looked at this 15-year-old and thought, 'crumbs, you'd better get a go on then because [the others] have all been karting since they were eight'. It has been a catch-up job."

Josh has caught up well. He won five races and made 12 podiums in the 2010 British Formula Ford Championship, finishing fifth behind champion and TRS competitor Scott Pye.

"It has been difficult for Josh," concedes Damon. "People are always drawing comparisons and wondering how he is going to do. But I think he has crossed that bridge already - he is a winner and he is fast. He is past the point where he is doing it to find out how good he is. It is now a serious career."

Aside from his 1996 triumph, Damon twice finished runner-up in F1. Damon's father Graham was a two-time F1 champion before his untimely death in a plane crash in 1975.

The Hills are part of a unique trio of three generation motor racers with a world champion among them. The others are Mario Andretti (1978 F1 champion) and his sons Michael and Jeff and Michael's son Marco Andretti, and Jack Brabham (1959, 1960 and 1966 F1 champion), sons Geoff and David and Geoff's son Matthew.

"Perhaps in his mind [Josh] has got a benchmark to be the best-ever Hill," says Damon. "That would be normal for a racing driver to want to be better than everyone else who has gone before. But he is also his own man and wants to establish his own reputation. There is nothing he can do about his heritage - he will just have to deal with it."

Josh has managed to largely avoid the spotlight in England, for which his father is grateful.

"When I started, there was a big press explosion in my very first race and I just wasn't prepared," he says. "I'm quite glad Josh has avoided that because it takes a while to recover."

Damon was initially surprised and concerned at the thought of his son racing but now finds it exciting. But spare a thought for family matriarch Bette Hill, who has had to watch her husband, son and now grandson compete in one of the world's most dangerous sports.

Damon is certainly putting no pressure on his son ahead of their visit to New Zealand.

"My approach with all of these things is, lead a horse to water and then see if he drinks," says Damon.

"Invariably with Josh, he takes a great big gulp. I come with a really open mind - I know there are a lot of great drivers down [in New Zealand] and there will be other good ones turning up."

Josh, 19, wears the burden of family fame well.

"I don't feel the pressure as much as people think I should," he says.

"Once I turn up at the racetrack, my heritage doesn't even register in my mind. To me, my dad is just my dad. I realise he is an F1 world champion but that is secondary."

Like his father, Josh is a keen musician, handy on the drums and guitar, and is looking to make an impact in Aotearoa.

"[The TRS] is a great opportunity to race such tough competition in conditions that are mostly wind and dry.

"It will be interesting to see how it pans out."

The Toyota Racing Series gets under way in Invercargill on January 13.